Famous actor, singer and songwriter Jaden Smith is once again using his fame and platform for good. Smith created his own new eight-episode Snapchat series called “The Solution Committee”, which premiered on Sept. 21, 2020, the day before National Voter Registration Day. You can watch the series on Snapchat’s discovery page every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In the trailer for the series, Smith said, “Welcome [to] the show where we bring people together to talk about complex issues,” including “why young people don’t vote.”
The unscripted series is planning episodes with a variety of topics centered around activism and politics during this difficult time in America. The first episodes are concentrating on the power of the vote and getting young people more excited about casting a ballot. “Historically, people between the ages of 18 to 23 have been less likely to vote. This is because a lot of young people feel like they don’t have the information or know where to get it. This show is about educating the youth and making sure they feel empowered and ready to vote,” Smith said in a statement. Then he added, “The world is not okay but together we can make a difference.” Later on, Smith plans to delve into topics including racism, race and inequality along with criminal justice and education reform.
The first episode featured celebrities including Haley Bieber and Yara Shahidi along with a few nationally known activists. Smith plans to have more celebrity guests in the future including Lena Waithe, Willow Smith, Janelle Monáe, Common and Phoebe Robinson. Smith stated that this series is him seeking “out the help of young activists and celebrity friends to explore and understand what we can do to create change around the most important racial and social justice issues of our time.” They plan to discuss how viewers can help spread change and take part along with providing links to get registered to vote at the end of each episode.
“My goal is to motivate as many as I can to become solution-based activists. The goal is to become experts in not just the issues we face, but around the solutions we have in our hands…” Jaden Smith said in a comment.
In a press release, the president of Westbrook Media, Brad Haugen, said “On top of being a world class entertainer, Jaden has dedicated so much of his life to finding innovative ways to shine a light on injustice. Beyond encouraging young people to vote, Jaden and his friends show why we should all care about these systemic issues and what we can do to fix them. After working with the fantastic team at Snap on Will from Home, we know this series can attract real attention which will hopefully lead to some necessary change.” Smith continued, “…I want my generation and the next one to understand that the private and public sectors are both needed to solve big issues. We need to put pressure on both by voting — with our dollar and the ballot. Vote, vote, vote, vote!”
